For the last three weeks, a group of women in politics from Japan have been touring the United States, visiting various cities, and learning about how politics work stateside.
They’ve visited cities like Portland and Washington, D.C., and their final stop on the tour was Austin. As part of their visit, the women made a trip to Liberty Hill to learn more about small-town politics.
During a brunch Thursday, the women, along with three interpreters, met with Mayor Liz Branigan, County Commissioner Cynthia Long, and women members of the Liberty Hill City Council and staff. The group was able to talk freely and ask each other questions about what it’s like to be a woman in politics and public service.
The visitors also asked Branigan several questions about her role as mayor, how elections work in Liberty Hill, what business growth is like in the City, and how women balance serving in the public sector while also being mothers and running households.
They were surprised to learn about the rapid growth Liberty Hill is experienced, audibly gasping when they learned about the City’s population growth over the last few years. In Japan, small cities and villages are getting smaller and smaller and it has been a challenge to attract families to the smaller towns. The visitors asked Branigan and Long what the secret to the growth is.
Long said an economic development partnership between Williamson County and each respective city helps to attract businesses, such as the Samsung facility going vertical in Taylor, to the county, which is a win for every city. Branigan added that Liberty Hill has also been able to attract investors to build apartment complexes in the area, which did not use to be customary to Liberty Hill in the past. This allows younger people with smaller incomes to live and work in the area.
Through their travels, the visitors have been learning how to empower women’s political leadership in Japan. The women traveled to the U.S. as part of the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program, which has several goals, including helping the visitors to examine programs that encourage women’s political participation and representation; develop strategies to pursue leadership and address gender inequality; and observe shared challenges between the two countries as well as discuss strategies to create a more representative government.
Yuki Ebisawa, a former City Council member for the City of Osaka, Japan, and a current house of councilors member for the Tokyo Electoral District Branch, said (through her interpreter) over the last few weeks, she and her peers have been to a lot of cities and spoken to a lot of different women who serve in politics.
“Everyone has said it was difficult to balance housework and raising children, but here [in Liberty Hill] is the first time we’re hearing people say it’s such a calming place where people can relax,” she said.
The other visitors in the group agreed. Among them was Ayako Fuchigami, who serves as a member of the Hokkaido Prefectural Assembly; Yukiko Fujiyama, who serves as a member of the Kyoto Prefectural Assembly; Chiho Kato, policy adviser for Yutaka Arai of the House of Representatives; and Sachiyo Sakaguchi, policy secretary for the House of Representatives.
The visitors were also able to learn about some of Liberty Hill’s storied past from Branigan, including information about when the City hosted the International Sculpture Symposium in 1976, which attracted artists from around the world to Liberty Hill, including a sculptor from Japan.
